08/11/2022

Caltech Connections in Rose Bowl History

Black and white photo marked U. Calif vs. O.S.U. Jan 1, 1921 in pen shows a huge crowd in a football stadium with one player on the field. Early Caltech buildings are visible behind the stands and mountains fill the hazy background. Annotation in pen with an arrow pointing to the player reads "Stinchcomb (Ohio State)"

The University of California played Oregon State University in a stadium on Caltech's athletic fields in the 1921 New Year's Day match. All-American Gaylord "Pete" Stinchcomb is on the field in this photo from the Caltech Archives collection. Credit: Caltech Archives

The University of Michigan football team stands crowded in a single carriage during the 1902 Rose Parade, all wearing dark Michigan sweaters in this black and white photo.

Credit: Permission restricted

In this excerpt of a black and white 1910 photo taken from the roof of Caltech's Throop Hall, a streetcar is the lone traffic on California Boulevard, below which an enormous empty stadium stands on the site of Caltech's current athletic fields and Tournament Park.

This color image collages three programs for NCAA Division III games between Caltech and Occidental College at the Rose Bowl stadium. The leftmost cover is for a game on Armistice Day, 11/12/1923, with a price marked 25 cents, and a pen-and-ink drawing of one player running in a crouch, arms outstretched. The center image, for an 11/8/1940 game priced at 10 cents, features a painting of six players, three in blue shirts and three in red, struggling for the ball. At right, the program cover for a 10/17/1941 game priced at 10 cents (this one showing arithmetic of price .097 plus tax .003 adding to total .10), features a painting of two players in red shirts, one about to throw the ball and the other on one foot in the foreground..

This black and white photo shows the packed stadium for the 1961 Rose Bowl Game. At center, thousands of fans hold cards over their heads that combine to read "CALTECH" in block letters.

Credit: Bruce Whitehead, Caltech Archives collection

Tags:

student life, Institute affairs

In 2022, the storied Rose Bowl stadium celebrates the centennial of its 1922 opening. Before the stadium hosted its inaugural New Year's Day match in 1923, the annual competitions were called Tournament East-West football games and took place alongside the first buildings on Caltech's campus.

In the photograph above, you can see the nascent research university behind the crowd amassed for the 1921 game. (The California Golden Bears ended the Ohio State University Buckeyes' winning streak.)

Today, Caltech maintains a portion of the historic fields as Tournament Park to commemorate its connection to the early games. Once the Rose Bowl stadium opened, the connection stayed lively: varsity and intramural Beaver games have taken place there along with two legendary Caltech pranks.

Click through the gallery below to travel back in time.

Written by Ann Motrunich